Sweet summer in the USA

I feel like my greeting should be in English now that I’m back in the USA, but I think I will keep the Spanish greeting just for fun. Anyway, hello everyone and happy summer! I have been back in the States for two months now and fall is closing in on me. I feel like I just came back from Spain a couple days ago, this summer has been flying by. However I am pretty much back to being adjusted to life in the USA, minus the going to school part; luckily less than two months until I’m back in Stevens Point. I thought I would do a little post midsummer to talk about what I have been up to, how I’ve been adjusting and my goals and plans for this fall.

In the last eight weeks I have been crazy busy. However, I think that is a good thing because it has been helping me adjust back to my old life. In the beginning of June I had my 21st birthday, although it wasn’t as crazy as most 21st birthdays; it was still nice and I had a little party where I got to see a lot of friends and family that I hadn’t seen since Christmas. Aside from that I have been helping my dad remodel his house and spending a lot of time with my family and little sisters. I’m also working on a vegetable garden and some potted plants too which is relaxing.

Speaking of relaxing I’ve read at least five books this summer (if you need a new summer read I have good recommendations!). On the weekends my boyfriend and I visit each other and have been doing a lot of things in the great outdoors which is nice after being in a city all the time while in Spain. We have been boating, fishing, kayaking, to the farmers market in Madison, and to a Brewers game. We spent the 4th of July (fun fact: my favorite holiday) together with our friends watching the fireworks shows on the lakes in the Waukesha area. I’ve gotten ridiculously tan but also covered with bug bites too (balances out I guess haha). Doing all of this helped me keep my mind off of Spain for a while which was nice. When I first came home I didn’t really want to talk about my time in Spain because it made me sad; but now that I’ve had some time to readjust, I’m ready to share my experiences. This last weekend I finished unpacking the various things I had collected in my travels (tickets, photos, souvenirs) and even began making a scrapbook. It’s nice to go through these things and recall the little journeys I had. This week I am going to send a letter to my host mom and the girls I tutored in Spain. All in all though I think I’m doing quite well being back home.

I’m also looking forward to this fall at UW-Stevens Point. I know I’ll be busy but I can’t wait to be back in Stevens Point and going to school again. I think it will be nice because the week before school I will be mentoring the international students who are studying abroad to UWSP. This will give me a chance to help students adjust to Point who are from other countries, sort of what I went through last semester but in reverse. Then I’ll move into my first apartment in Stevens Point, start working as an accounting assistant in Payment Services on campus, attending classes, being a public relations coordinator for the Student Finance Association, and of course finding time to blog for all of you guys!

Until then I hope everyone has a great rest of their summer, enjoy the time off and come back to school ready-to-go! I will post a blog as soon as school gets going, I’m sure I’ll have a lot of things to share!

Hasta Luego,
Alexia

Alexia Szabo is a junior majoring in accounting, Spanish and international studies at UW-Stevens Point.